


Circles

by HPsmartone32



Series: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs Proudly Present: [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Pre-Relationship, and the other marauders are mentioned, but this is basically jily fluff and i'm not sorry, i'm terrible at summaries and i am sorry about that, in which lily is a bit slow on the uptake, snapshot fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-17
Updated: 2017-11-17
Packaged: 2019-02-03 14:17:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12749988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HPsmartone32/pseuds/HPsmartone32
Summary: Lily wasn't entirely convinced that this new thing with James Potter was more than an elaborate plot to steal her owl and take her place at the top of the class, but she reckoned she'd see it through anyway.





	Circles

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I know I'm supposed to be working on my multichapter fic but all I really have to say for myself is: oops.

 

 

_Never._

_Again._

 

Lily was never going to leave her packing to the last minute again.

 

Well, probably.

 

Fine, she definitely would, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t lie to herself about one of her main character flaws as she half-ran, half-walked to the Entrance Hall with her trunk floating beside her and her owl cage swinging by her side. It would be just her luck to miss the Hogwarts Express back home the second to last time she’d ever take it that way.

 

_What happens if I miss the Hogwarts Express?_

 

Her owl hooted, disgruntled at being jostled in her cage, and Lily pulled it up to her face, stopping at the top of the staircase.

 

“None of that,” She told Ophelia, who ruffled her feathers in a dignified manner. “We wouldn’t be late if you hadn’t taken so long to get into your cage! I know you hate it, but I told you, it’s just until –” Lily broke off with a scream as her trunk, which had been floating peacefully behind her, shot forward, flew to the top of the Entrance Hall, and opened. Her possessions began raining down on the hall.

 

“Peeves!” Lily screamed, pulling her wand from her robes and directing it at her floating trunk. She sprinted down the stairs, trying to slow the effect of gravity on some of her more fragile items. “I _swear_ –”

 

The poltergeist popped into visibility, cackling, as he continued to reach into her trunk and throw various things out of it.

 

“What the – _ow!_ Bleeding hell!”

 

Lily was just setting Ophelia’s case at the bottom the staircase when she turned to see James Potter rubbing his head, emerging from the dungeons and squinting up at her falling possessions.

 

“Whose shit have you nicked now,” He yelled up at Peeves. He directed his wand at a large pink-jeweled flower hair clip that had fallen at his feet, “ _Waddiwasi!_ ”

 

The hair clip flew from his feet at top speed and, so fast that Lily nearly missed it, wedged itself as far as it could go up Peeves’ nose. Peeves shrieked and dropped Lily’s trunk, his hands flying to the end of the clip that was protruding from his left nostril.

 

“Padfoot will be happy that his spell works,” James said to himself, a satisfied expression on his face.

 

Lily directed her wand at her falling trunk and quickly charmed it to slow to a soft landing, “You know, I was rather fond of that hair clip.”

 

James’ head snapped around to look at her so fast that it looked painful. “Oh, shit, Evans,” he said eloquently. He looked quite like she’d caught him doing something illegal.

 

Lily couldn’t help it, she burst out laughing at his horrified expression, “I’m joking,” she managed to get out. His face relaxed as he watched her. “I hated that stupid thing – I think Petunia gave it to me for Christmas last year because it was the most horrible thing she could find.”

 

“Well I certainly wouldn’t put it in your hair anymore,” James commented lightly, looking up at Peeves who was still making screeching noises as he floated around the ceiling, ricocheting off the walls and trying to pull the clip out of his nose.

 

“Ta,” Lily laughed, and walked over to where her trunk had landed amidst her fallen belongings.

 

She began throwing things into her trunk without much care, annoyed that she was having to pack twice in one day.

 

She had just collected the underwear that Peeves had tossed out when, over her shoulder, a line of her shoes fell into her trunk. She turned in time to see James finish charming things back into her trunk. She watched as he picked up a book that had its cover ripped off and charmed it back together, a grin on his face as he examined his handy work.

 

He looked up and caught her eye and his grin widened. He crossed the hall and handed her the book.

 

Lily quickly shoved the pants in her hand deep into her trunk. The last thing she needed was for James Potter to see her underwear; the day that happened would be the day she took a very long walk off of a very short cliff.

 

“Thanks,” she told him as he handed her the books he’d collected from the other side of the hall.

 

Peeves managed to yell a few choice swear words in the silence before James nodded, “‘Course.”

 

Lily closed her trunk, her belongings back in place, and went to collect Ophelia. James knelt by her trunk, muttering as he drew his wand over the edges.

 

“What are you doing, Potter?” Lily asked suspiciously, turning with her owl cage in her hand.

 

“Sealing your trunk so your possessions stay in place until you open it,” James said, tapping it once more with his wand before standing. “There, you could drop it from the quidditch stands now and nothing would happen.”

 

Lily raised an eyebrow at him, “Do you consistently drop your trunk from the quidditch stands?”

 

James let out a laugh, “No, but at certain points, we – the lads, I mean – have had some, er, _sensitive items_ that would do better to remain undisturbed and locked in our trunks.”

 

“Naturally,” Lily deadpanned. “I suppose I’d be better off not asking about that.”

 

“Best not,” James said solemnly. “Your Prefect-ly ears might fall off.”

 

Lily rolled her eyes at him.

 

“HA!” Peeves called from over their heads. Lily and James both looked up to see Peeves chuck the hair clip at them. James stopped it sliding across the floor with his foot as Peeves landed at the top of the bannister. As he slid down, the poltergeist taunted, “Wee-Potty thought he’d beat me but Peeves is too clever to be – _ooof_ ”

 

Lily waved her wand and a strong gust of wind caught Peeves at the end of his bannister-slide and blew him into the wall on the opposite side of the hall, _hard_.

 

James burst out laughing and Lily turned to look at him. There was something about the moment, the way his laugh spread from his mouth to his cheeks to his crinkled eyes and then rumbled through his body so effortlessly – as if he were born to be happy, made for this world to laugh like that – that momentarily took her breath away.

 

A moment later, with the flick of his wand, Lily turned to see the hair clip fly up and clip itself to the chandelier, sparkling pink and obnoxious in the direct sunlight.

 

“A memento,” James declared. “To the time Lily Evans forsake her Prefect badge for revenge.”

 

Lily tried in vain to wipe the traitorous grin off her face as she squinted up at the pink spot on the fixture, “Tell anyone and I’ll have to kill you.”

 

James sighed dramatically, “No one would believe if I tried, Evans.”

 

Lily reached out and shoved him. He stumbled to the side a bit, grinning at her again.

 

“C’mon, the train is going to leave without us,” she told him calling her trunk to her again with the wave of her wand. It floated behind them as they walked out of the hall.

 

“It wouldn’t,” James said easily as they climbed into the single carriage waiting by the castle. She could see a few others as black blurs, far up the path to Hogsmeade already. She and James appeared to be the last out of the castle.

 

“Why not?” Lily asked, genuinely curious. Did the train really wait for all the students to board? She figured she should probably find that out, what with her propensity to leave her packing to the last bloody minute and all.

 

“It obviously couldn’t leave without Big Bad Prefect Lily Evans. There’d be mutiny aboard! Students running amok and chaos reigning!”

 

Lily narrowed her eyes at him as he smirked at her, “I’ll push you into the lake, Potter.”

 

James chuckled, looking out towards the body of water she’d threatened him with. It sparkled in the sun, a very deep blue today, and much too far away for her to truly do anything about. Still, James chuckled, a sound that seemed to come from his chest, “You know what? I actually believe you.”

 

He turned his hazel eyes back at her just as the sun poked through the window and hit his face, causing the gold in them to shine out at her. Suddenly, they were a lot, those eyes.

 

“Well, good,” Lily said, lamely. Her mind had gone annoyingly blank. She felt her cheeks heat up and ignored them, “Why are you so late, anyway?”

 

James patted the rucksack in his lap, “Had to get provisions.”

 

Lily shot him a bemused look, “Isn’t that what the trolley is for?”

 

“Yeah, but that’s not for _hours_ after we leave.”

 

“You can’t go a few hours without food?” Lily asked, a laugh in her voice that she didn’t put there.

 

“Don’t know,” James shrugged. “Never tried.”

 

Lily actually laughed at that, “You’re insane.”

 

James’ mouth twitched at the corners, “Probably, but that’s got nothing to do with my eating habits.”

 

Lily shook her head at him, turning to catch a last glimpse of the castle before they rounded a corner into Hogsmeade proper. As she watched it disappear, she tugged twisted her hands in her lap absentmindedly.

 

“Any plans for the summer?” James asked after a beat of comfortable silence.

 

Lily sighed, running a hand through her hair, “My sister’s getting married come December, so I expect I’ll spend most of it trying to avoid never-ending soliloquies about flower arrangements, dresses, and Vernon Bleeding Dursley.”

 

James didn’t respond, and when Lily turned to see why he seemed to be recovering from a great shock. She felt her cheeks heat again, “What, never heard a bird curse before, Potter?”

 

“Did you curse?” he asked, feigning a look of shock. “I thought that was simply an unfortunate name. I guess Dursley is a pretty solid swear word, though. How would you use that in a sentence?”

 

Lily fought a smile in spite of herself, “Emphatically and with enthusiasm.”

 

“Fair enough,” James laughed.

 

“What about you?” Lily asked him.

 

James shrugged, “I’ve got some Transfiguration to work on. That, and as much quidditch as I can convince Sirius to play, I reckon.”

 

“Transfiguration?” Was Lily imaging it, or was James a bit red in the cheeks.

 

“Er – yeah, I’ve been working on something with Professor McGonagall.”

 

Lily’s eyebrows nearly met her hairline.

 

“Don’t give me that look,” James scowled at her.

 

“What look?” Lily asked him, snapping her jaw shut and schooling her expression.

 

“Like you can’t believe I’m actually clever,” James managed to force out, turning to look out the window. “I like Transfiguration, and I’m pretty good at it. McGonagall and I are working on a theoretical assessment of where and how vanished objects go and how they’re summoned back into existence.”

 

Lily didn’t know what to say to that. She settled on muttering, “I wasn’t giving you a look.”

 

James fixed her with one of his own and she rolled her eyes, “Yeah, alright. Sorry.”

 

She looked back out the window, feeling weird in a way she couldn’t quite pin down.

 

They arrived at the station soon after, and James hopped out of the carriage first, then turned to take Ophelia’s cage from her.

 

“Thanks,” She handed it to him before she carefully stepped off the carriage.

 

Ophelia blinked up at James and hooted softly. James smiled down at the owl, poking his fingers through the cage to stroke her feathers.

 

“I wouldn’t, she –” Lily tried to warn him – the last person who had tried that had nearly lost their fingers – but her jaw nearly hit the ground when Ophelia just hooted happily and leaned into James’ petting. “–doesn’t usually let people do that.”

 

James snorted as Ophelia cuddled to the side of the cage near James, “Yeah, real vicious bird you’ve got here, Evans.”

 

“Clearly,” Lily managed to say though her shock. Ophelia hardly ever showed _her_ that much affection.

 

James held the cage up so Ophelia was at eye level, “If you get tired of Evans over the summer, feel free to visit,” He told her. “I’ve got some pretty good owl treats.”

 

“Are you trying to bribe my owl away from me?”

 

“Whatever it takes to get a letter from you, Evans,” James grinned easily, _unabashedly_ at her.

 

He held out the cage and she took it, her mouth opening and closing but for reasons unknown to her, unable to find words. James ran a hand through his hair and it stuck up even more than it had done before.

 

“Prongs, get your arse on the train, I’m starving!” James and Lily both turned to see Sirius hanging out of a train window farther down, waving his arms wildly.

 

“Duty calls,” James said, turning back. “Have a nice summer,” he grinned a mischievous grin at her and started walking away, backwards so he was still facing her.

 

“Maybe I’ll write you about it,” Lily found herself saying back, the corners of her mouth rising as he beamed at her before turning and jogging the length of the train and pulling himself onboard.

 

As she tugged her own trunk onto the train and set out to find Marlene and Mary, she couldn’t help but think that maybe being mates with James Potter wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

 

* 

 

The first letter arrived on hot afternoon in late July as Lily and her mother sat watching the dishes from lunch clean themselves in the sink. Now that she was seventeen, Lily delighted in showing her parents what she had learned while she was away at school; it seemed that they enjoyed watching, so long as Petunia wasn’t around.

 

As it was, Petunia and their father were both at work and Lily and her mother were chatting happily about cleaning spells when Ophelia landed on the window sill overlooking the back garden.

 

Lily felt a smile stretch across her face as she stood up and crossed to let her owl in.

 

“What’s got you so excited?” Lily’s mom asked from the small kitchen table.

 

“I’m not so excited,” Lily said quickly. Ophelia stood still and Lily unwrapped the letter from her leg. “It’s just my mate finally wrote me back; Ophelia seems to have stayed with him while he took his sweet time responding.”

 

Ophelia hooted and hopped onto Lily’s shoulder in a show of affection usually reserved for apologies. “Yeah, yeah, I know you like him more than me, don’t even,” Lily muttered to her pet, but she stroked her feathers all the same.

 

“Which mate is this?” Lily’s mom asked, narrowing her eyes at her daughter.

 

“James Potter,” Lily said.

 

Mrs. Evans didn’t respond to that, and Lily refused to look away from her owl to meet her gaze. She’d complained enough about James Potter that she was sure her mother was about to launch into a full-blown Investigation.

 

“I’m going to take Ophelia upstairs so she can rest,” Lily said quickly. “I’ll be back down in a bit.”

 

“Yeah, okay,” her mother responded skeptically; however, she kept any other thoughts to herself, for which Lily was grateful.

 

As soon as she crossed the threshold to her room, Ophelia launched off her shoulder and into her cage and began lapping up water. Lily kicked her door shut behind her and fell onto her bed, unrolling the parchment.

 

 

_Evans,_

_First of all, you’re right, your bird_ does _like me better than you. I told you, I have some pretty good owl treats. I’d say I’m sorry, but I don’t want to lie to you. I will say that my owl, Minerva, was rather peeved that she didn’t get to go out and deliver this letter herself. I had to send her with a letter to Remus about nothing in particular just to keep her from snapping at me when I try to feed them._

_Your owl is a homewrecker, Evans, that’s what I’m trying to say here. And I think she knows it, too._

_Transfiguration is going about how you’d except it to go considering I’m trying to locate vanished objects in oblivion. I’ve managed to vanish and conjure the same coin a few times, but you’ve got to be very specific with your spell and pronunciation to even do that. Any tips from the best witch in the grade at Charms would be much appreciated._

_Your sister sounds like a right pain, if I’m being honest. She should be amazed by your spells; Flitwick damn near wets himself when he sees you do Charms, and I’m pretty sure he was around when magic was invented.  Petunia doesn’t know what she’s missing out on._

_That party sounds like quite the event, though. A bit peeved I didn’t get invited; Petunia and Vernon Bleeding Dursley would have been delighted by my company, I’m sure. I would have worn my best dress robes, the ones with the flashing colored bowties that move around. It would’ve been a grand time._

_At least, I mean,_ thank Merlin, _that Petunia’s settled on a dress. Does she know how little time she has? She’s just past six months until the wedding, hardly any time at all! How are you not panicking, Evans, it’s clearly time for PANIC!!_

_Do keep me updated on the wedding plans. I am absolutely quivering in my drawers to find out if your sister has picked pink or red roses for her wedding to Vernon Bleeding Dursley. And the bridesmaid dresses – that’s what they’re called right? I asked Remus last week and he said so but he was laughing so hard he might have been pulling my leg – what shade are those going to be?_

_Sirius says hi and has been charming owl pellets to hit me in the back of the head for the entire time I’ve been writing this letter so I must be off. My dear mate Padfoot needs to be dangled out of my bedroom window._

_Cheers,_

_Ophelia’s Undisputed Favorite_

 

Lily had barely finished the letter when there was a tapping on the window. She sat up and looked around. A large barn owl with round amber eyes was floating outside. Furrowing her brow, she opened her window to let it in. The owl immediately flew past her and landed next to Ophelia, who snapped her beak once before allowing the new owl to perch quite close to her in her cage. The owl hooted and held out it’s leg to Lily, who was beginning to suspect who this owl belonged to.

 

She unrolled the letter and saw one line in a familiar tidy scrawl.

 

_P.S. Enjoy a little homewrecking yourself, Evans. You’re welcome, Minnie’s a delight._

 

Lily laughed. She laughed until she couldn’t really breathe and even though she didn’t understand why she was laughing so hard, she couldn’t stop. She sat back down on her bed. And, calming down, the stupid grin on her face still refused to leave because of course Potter had an owl named Minerva that he called Minnie; of course he had dress robes with bowties that flashed different colors and moved around; of course he was all joking tone and sarcastic comments but somehow made her feel better about her sister and her sister’s shitty fiancé; of course James Potter was all of that but also performing advanced Transfiguration work in his free time. Of bloody course.

 

Alone in her room, looking at the two owls who were perched closer than they needed to be, but looked like they weren’t entirely sure if they enjoyed it or not, Lily Evans decided that she was quite glad she’d had one too many glasses of wine at Petunia’s engagement party and decided to write James Potter a letter.

 

* 

 

Lily read them over again, trying to calm her nerves but managing to do the opposite.

 

_Evans,_

_I need to talk to you. Can you please meet me in Diagon Alley on the Sunday? I promise I’ll buy you that nasty ice cream you like if you’ll meet me at Fortescue’s at noon. Double scoop, with sprinkles._

_Yours in bribery,_

_Minerva’s Owner (Have Fun With That One)_

 

 

 

_Evans,_

_Go – you’re going to want to know what he has to say and I think that he needs to hear your take more than ours. I promise he’s not going to ask you out, don’t get your knickers in a twist._

_-The Handsome One_

_And Remus, though he objected to the use of the phrase “get your knickers in a twist” and says he’ll hex me if I don’t put this bit in. Cheers, Moony, happy now?_

 

 

Lily had about fifteen minutes to decide if she wanted to go or not. James had only written her yesterday, and then Sirius’ letter had flown in not an hour later, but she’d been so distracted by the first letter she’d received yesterday – the one with the shiny new Head Girl badge in it – that she hadn’t written him back.

 

She put the letters down on her bed and picked up her new badge, turning it over and over in her hand. She kept trying to decide if she had expected it. If she had expected that she would open her Hogwarts letter this summer and it would fall into her lap. Was it conceited of her if she had?

 

Sighing, she set it back down on the small table next to her bed and ran a hand through her hair.

 

She was going to go. Obviously, she was going to go. If not because she and James Potter were fast approaching something close to real, honest-to-Merlin, I’ll-be-your-alibi-if-you-need-it friendship, then purely to satisfy her curiosity about the whole thing.

 

If her parents hadn’t insisted on taking her out to dinner and such to celebrate her achievement – one that they could understand in a way they didn’t understand a lot about her world – then she could have written Remus and demanded he tell her what was up, alas…

 

She walked into her bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. A thin, lanky, freckled girl in a Puddlemere United t-shirt and jean shorts stared back at her, her hair falling past her shoulders in a tangled mess.

 

She pulled her hair into a ponytail and, deciding that it was too hot outside to change into anything else, stuck her wand in her back pocket and made her way downstairs.

 

“Mom? Dad?” Lily jumped the last stair out of habit and walked around the small bottom floor trying to locate her parents. She finally spotted them outside in the back yard and, slipping into her favorite pair of sandals, went out.

 

“Hey Lilybug,” her dad grinned at her. He was covered in dirt, planting some type of flower in one of the few bare spots of their garden. Her mom, who was watering the other side of the garden, turned and smiled.

 

“Is it alright if I pop into Diagon Alley for lunch? Marlene and Mary want to meet to hear about the Head Girl news and catch up,” Lily fibbed. She knew that if she said she was meeting James Potter that her parents would make it a Big Deal, which it most certainly Was Not.

 

“Sure, love,” her mom grinned at her. “Be back by tea, though, your father’s cooking a brilliant roast.”

 

“Thanks!”

 

“Be careful!” her father called after her as she made her way to the end of the protective charms she’d set up around their house after her fifth year. Her parents knew enough about the war to understand the need for the charms, but not quite enough to fit them with the gnawing sense of dread and worry that seemed to eat away at anyone magical these days. Lily was intent on keeping it that way for as long as possible.

 

“Always am,” Lily called back, stepping outside the shielding and anti-apparation jinxes and turning on the spot.

 

She appeared behind the Leaky Cauldron and dug her wand out of her pocket to press the correct brick. As Diagon Alley sprawled out in front of her, she found herself grinning. Every time she visited, she was struck by the wonder of the place, by the giddiness attached to the first truly magical place she’d ever seen.

 

She picked her way around bustling people, frowning at the site of more closed down shops than she’d seen previously. Her favorite bookshop, the small one next to Olivanders, looked abandoned. She stopped and stared at the used robes shop that she’d gotten her very first pair of robes at; its windows and door were completely boarded up.

 

“Dad says that people are fleeing the country and leaving their shops behind,” a familiar voice said behind her.

 

For some reason, she didn’t even jump. It was almost as if she’d known he was there. She turned to face him, sighing, “I got my first set of robes there. I was eleven and it was the first time I’d been anywhere that was completely magical.”

 

James, who had lines under his eyes that she had only seen a few times before, grinned at her and the tension he was carrying in his shoulders seemed to lessen, “They were too big for you.”

 

Lily laughed at that, “They didn’t have many sizes! Mum tried to hem them, but she’d never done robes before.”

 

“Little Lily Evans, swallowed by her robes,” James said, teasing her, but there was such a fond expression on his face that she couldn’t even bring up a proper scowl.

 

“And little James Potter,” she gave up and grinned back at him. “In perfectly tailored robes with golden trim around the edges.”

 

“They did not have golden trim!” James said half-laughing, half-indignant.

 

“They might as well have,” Lily shrugged.

 

“Ouch,” James put a hand over his heart and winced dramatically.

 

“Oh, shut it,” Lily rolled her eyes. “Now, where to? I’m starving, Petunia’s started this wedding diet and is making all of us do it with her so –”

 

“All you can have for breakfast is fruit?” James finished for her. She turned to look at him. “You might have mentioned it in your letters. A couple hundred times.”

 

“You can’t go half a Hogwarts Express ride without provisions and you’re teasing me for being unhappy eating rabbit food for breakfast?”

 

James seemed to consider this, “You have a point, Evans.”

 

“I’d like to have lunch.”

 

“You can have lunch as well,” James allowed graciously. “C’mon.”

 

Lily saw his arm twitch towards her, but he only ran a hand through his hair and set off down the road. She blinked at him, then sped up to keep pace, “Where are we going?”

 

“There’s a stall up here that sells the best chicken and bacon sandwiches you’ve ever had, trust me,” James told her.

 

“God, yes, please,” Lily all but moaned, her mouth already watering.

 

They brought their sandwiches to one of the small tables outside of Florean Fortescue’s and after Lily had all but devoured hers, she fixed James with a look.

 

He seemed to swallow instinctively and unnecessarily, having finished his sandwich a minute before.

 

“So?” she said, raising her eyebrows and wiping her mouth with a napkin.

 

“Right,” James said, sounding worried. “The thing is,” he started. He cleared his throat. Tried again, “the thing is that…” he didn’t seem to be able to meet her eye anymore.

“Potter, spit it out,” she said, though not unkindly. He was making her nervous now.

 

He took a deep breath and then reached into the pockets of his jeans, pulled something out, and slapped it down on the table.

 

Lily shot him a confused look as he took his hand away, then looked down at what he’d produced.

 

The badge shone golden in the midday sun between the detritus of their sandwiches. _Head Boy_.

 

“You’re _joking_ ,” Lily said loudly and reflexively, reaching out to touch it, to make sure it was really bleeding real.

 

She glanced up at James and nearly winced at his defeated expression. He clearly was _not_ joking. She looked back down at the badge.

 

“I –” she started, flipping the badge over in her hand as she had been doing with her own not an hour before. It was very real.

 

“Yeah, I don’t know what he was thinking either,” James said, sounding smaller than Lily had ever heard him sound in six years of knowing him.

 

She looked up at him, but he was looking out at Diagon Alley. He looked, Lily realized with a jolt, scared.

 

“Potter,” She said, and for the first time she could remember, he didn’t turn to look at her.

 

She hadn’t realized she’d reached out until her hand clasped around his larger, callused one, “Hey,” she said, softer, and he finally looked back at her. “I know what he was thinking. He was thinking that the kids in the lower years look up to you. That – with exceptions I won’t elaborate on at the moment – you’re kind to people first and you ask questions second. That people look at you and trust you because you have this stupid honesty and loyalty act, only it’s not an act, it’s just who you are. And, though it pains me to admit this, he’s thinking that, despite Quidditch and extra-bloody-Transfiguration assignments, you’re _still_ top of the year in nearly every subject. So, yeah, you caught me by surprise a bit there, but Dumbledore’s not crazy and you’re not a bad choice.”

 

James stared at her, his face inscrutable. She felt her cheeks heat up and began mentally kicking herself for saying all of that to him, just like that.

 

 _It really was true, though, wasn’t it?_ The words had all sort of tumbled out of her mouth unbidden when she saw that look on his face. She hadn’t thought it through until the words were out there, hanging between them, but she had to admit they all did ring true.

 

“I wasn’t a Prefect,” James said, his voice still laced with something Lily didn’t like; something like doubt.

 

“Well, yeah, no one’s stupid enough to have given you a badge back then,” Lily shrugged.

 

The corner of James’ mouth twitched.

 

“You don’t think it’s a mistake? That I’ll mess it all up?”

 

Lily let out a short laugh, “Of course I think you’ll mess it up,” she told him. “I think that _I’ll_ mess it up. Everyone messes it up at first, no one gets it exactly right, Potter, not even you.”

 

James fixed her with a look so like one _she’d_ given _him_ too many times – the one that said ‘ _can you be serious for a second please?’_ – that she nearly laughed again. She only just managed to swallow it.

 

She sighed, still grinning, “No, I don’t think it’s a mistake. You’ll be good at it,” she told him honestly. “If you want to be,” she added.

 

Finally, _finally_ , he grinned back at her. When he squeezed her hand, she realized she was still holding his. She pulled it away and went to run it through her hair before realizing she’d put it up today. She settled on tugging on her ponytail, cheeks warm.

 

“Thanks, Evans,” James said, his normal voice back and sounding relieved. “I… I was worried, I guess.”

 

Lily narrowed her eyes at him, “About being Head Boy or about how I’d react?”

 

James grinned, crooked and endearing, “Yes?”

 

Lily rolled her eyes at him, and he let out a laugh. When she met his eyes again, she brought her arms onto the table and fixed him with a Solemn Look, “Listen up, Potter, this is important,” she said. James’ face slid back to inscrutable so fast that Lily found herself truly impressed. “If we’re going to have to work together, I’m going to need one thing from you, okay?”

 

James nodded, looking serious.

 

“I’m going to need you to never, _ever_ call Pistachio ice cream ‘nasty’ again,” she said, looking directly into his Too Much eyes.

 

James managed to hold it together for all of a heartbeat before he was laughing again, a hand flying to his hair and tugging, “Hell, Evans, you’re going to send me to an early grave, you know that?”

 

“I’m serious, James Potter, there are insults that I won’t stand for, and that’s one of them.”

 

“I cannot believe you got me with that, bloody hell,” James swore, looking out on the street again and still looking relieved enough that Lily was slightly offended.

 

He turned back to her and jumped up, “Let’s go then,” he said, grabbing her hand off the table and pulling her up. “I did promise: double scoop with sprinkles.”

 

She allowed herself to be pulled up a little enthusiastically, and had to catch herself against his arm, grinning, “Too right you did.” They walked toward the door to the parlor before Lily stopped suddenly, and put a hand on James’ arm to turn him toward her, “Wait, how did you know that I got Head Girl?”

 

James looked at her as if she’d grown an extra head, “Evans, I’ve known you were going to be Head Girl since we were in our second year and you swore that if you smelled one whiff of the very many dungbombs you’d caught me with, you were going to make sure you lost every single point that I ever earned for Gryffindor by playing quidditch yourself because you weren’t a tattle tale, but you weren’t going to let me get away with anything either.”

 

Lily snorted rather unattractively before grinning up at him, “I was a little shit, wasn’t I?”

 

“Some things never change, Evans. Some things never change.”

 

“Just for that, I’m getting three scoops _and_ making you try some,” Lily sniffed, throwing open the door to the shop and leaving a laughing James Potter standing outside.

 

* 

 

It was late.

 

The only reason that she was awake was because she knew that he was, and for some reason she didn’t let herself consider, that mattered. He hadn’t returned from his patrol, the one that he was supposed to have with her the night before but that he’d had to reschedule. It nearing on _too late_ , even if he had stopped in to do the paperwork before heading back like he usually did, and Lily was getting sick of pretending to do homework in the Common Room while she waited for him to waltz through the Portrait Hole complaining about how late it was.

 

Peter Pettigrew was passed out on the couch with a book over his face, Sirius and a sick-looking Remus had gone up to bed soon after their mate had fallen asleep without being kind enough to wake him up as well, and her own friends had called it a night even before they had. There were two fifth years in the opposite corner working frantically out of a book Lily recognized as the one from O.W.L. year Transfiguration, but apart from them, she was the only one still awake and ‘working.’

 

She glanced at her watch again and sighed, knowing somewhere in the unacknowledged part of her mind that if she didn’t go now, she’d just end up going later unless he decided to show up before she got the chance.

 

With a groan that definitely had more than one meaning, she stood up, slipped her shoes back onto her feet, her robes back over her shoulders and shuffled out of the Portrait Hole. The Fat Lady sassed her on her way out, and Lily barely managed not to flick a rude hand gesture at her. As Head Girl, it would probably be Frowned Upon.

 

Before long, the cold of the castle seeped into her bones and got comfy there even though it was barely November. She shoved her hands under her armpits to warm them up and, walking a bit faster, reached her destination in under five minutes. The door to the room they held Prefect meetings in was slightly ajar. She nudged it open with her foot.

 

There he was.

 

His black hair looked as messy as ever, falling over the arms his head was resting on as well as sticking straight into the air in a truly impressive defiance of gravity. His glasses were pushed up onto his forehead from the awkward position, and it was clear, even from across the room, that he was dead asleep on top of the patrol forms he’d been filling out.

 

 _Figures_ , Lily shook her head, totally not smiling more than was normal given the situation. She quietly walked around the room, taking her hands out from under her arms. When she was close enough, she pressed one set of very cold fingers into the warm side of James Potter’s face.

 

His face scrunched up for a second, which no part of Lily’s mind was thinking was adorable, thanks for asking, and Lily swiftly stepped back before James jolted upright with a muffled scream of “Not again, Padfoot!”

 

For a moment Lily couldn’t decide if she was more curious, disgusted, or amused, but then James pulled his glasses back on properly and focused his eyes on her with the most confused expression she’d ever seen and suddenly she was laughing so hard she had to brace herself on the table in front of her.

 

“Oh, shit, Evans,” James said, sounding embarrassed and still a little confused. “What – why-” he focused on her again, taking in the oversized jumper and pajama bottoms just visible under her robes. “What time is it?” he settled on.

 

“Just after midnight,” Lily told him when she managed to stop laughing.

 

“Shit,” James looked around. “I must have fallen asleep.”

 

Lily pulled out the chair she was leaning on and sat down, propping her feet up onto his leg. “Brilliant detective work there, Potter. Your immeasurable intelligence never ceases to amaze.”

 

“Oh, shove off,” James muttered, but there was a smile tugging at his lips as he angled his chair so that her position was more comfortable and rested his arms on her legs. “What’re you doing here? Making sure the Big Bad Slytherins didn’t murder me on rounds without you there to watch?”

 

“Oh, ha, ha,” Lily said, her cheeks feeling a bit hot. “I just figured you’d fallen asleep and thought I’d be nice, but I’ll go,” she said airily, though she didn’t move her legs and James didn’t move to let her.

 

“Thoughtful,” James grinned at her, a sleepy and happy look that made her inhale sharply.

 

“You look exhausted,” Lily told him.

 

James nodded, answering her with a yawn, “Was up late last night.”

 

Lily raised an eyebrow at him, trying and failing not to yawn through her skeptical expression. “You were up late even though you canceled rounds with me?”

 

James didn’t meet her eye, looking instead at the paperwork spread about the table, “Had some things to do.”

 

Lily narrowed her eyes, “With Black and Pettigrew and Remus?”

 

James finally looked at her; he looked at her as if he were looking for something specific. Finally, he shrugged, “Remus wasn’t feeling well, so I helped him out with a few essays.”

 

Lily felt a rush of unexpected affection, “You did his essays because he wasn’t feeling well?”

 

James just shrugged again, looking away from her, “‘S’not a big deal.”

 

Lily disagreed, but probably not for the reason James thought she would.

 

She didn’t know what made her do it, but suddenly she was nudging his side with her foot until he was looking at her again.

 

“Tell me something I don’t know about you,” she said, ignoring the burning in her cheeks as she said it.

 

James looked at her as if she were a riddle and the answer was on the tip of his tongue, just out of reach. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” he said slowly, carefully, as if he wasn’t entirely sure that what he was saying was true even though by all accounts it should be.

 

“Something that’ll impress me then,” Lily pressed him. “Merlin knows how you love to show off, yeah?” she teased.

 

He was still looking at her with that expression, the one that was trying to figure her out but at the same time knew he never would. Lily didn’t know why she liked that damn look on his face so much, but it was making her heart race. She felt at the same time like her skin was suddenly too small for the rest of her and like she’d never been more comfortable. She felt as if everything had been thrown in contradiction while she wasn’t paying attention, and now that she was, she didn’t mind.

 

“Alright,” James said softly and it echoed loudly in Lily’s ribcage. He picked up her legs and gently set them to the side so that he could stand up. He offered her his hand and she took it. He pulled her up and then quickly let go, waving his wand so that the paperwork he’d been doing shuffled into a tidy pile.

 

“C’mon,” he grinned at her, the crooked one this time, and he led the way out of the room.

 

Lily followed him, feeling curious and something else she couldn’t, or didn’t want to, name. They walked in silence, side by side, until they were on the seventh floor. James stopped abruptly beside a tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy attempting to teach some trolls the ballet and turned to look at her.

 

“Trust me?” he said, his voice a smirk.

 

Lily looked at him, considering, then said the only thing she could, “Of course.”

 

“Close your eyes,” he said, and reached down to take her hand. It was warm and calloused and familiar now. Lily swallowed hard, but did as she was told. James tugged her hand gently and they walked a few steps one way, stopped, and walked the same number of steps back to where they started.

 

“James, what –”

 

“Shh!”

 

Lily hmphed, but fell silent. After three times pacing back and forth, James stopped them. “Okay, open.”

 

She opened her eyes and, where before there had been a blank stretch of wall, there was now a very tall, solid-looking door.

 

“What –”

 

“We call it the Room of Requirement,” James told her. “Specifically,” he dropped her hand and walked forward. “This is the Room of Hidden Things,” he threw open the door and Lily followed him inside.

 

“Bloody hell,” she said, quietly, amazed. There were stacks of discarded objects, broken objects, and, Lily was quite sure, _illegal_ objects everywhere. Apart from the narrow pathways, it was hard to find any part of the room untouched by the explosion of, well, _everything._

 

“We found it when we needed to hide some dungbombs in an immediate sort of way back in second year,” James laughed, watching Lily turn on the spot and take it all in. “You might recall that certain threats were made.”

 

“Color me impressed,” Lily admitted, finally turning to look back at James and meeting his smile-crinkled eyes.

 

“Oh, I’m not done yet,” James told her. “Don’t move,” he said and turned to walk away before spinning back around. “I’m serious, don’t move or I probably won’t be able to find you again.”

 

“Okay, okay,” Lily said. “Glued to the spot, I get it.”

 

“Right,” James nodded and disappeared behind a grand piano with several wooden benches piled on top of it.

 

Lily looked around at the objects surrounding her in turn, occasionally turning when she heard James’ muttered curses or the sounds of ominous shifting a good distance away. “Potter?” She called after a while.

 

“Coming!” she heard him respond, from what sounded like a quidditch pitch away. How big _was_ this place?

 

“Eyes closed again!” She heard him call as he stepped from behind the piano, arms behind his back.

 

“What do you have?”

 

“Close your eyes and you’ll find out.”

 

She narrowed her eyes at him, then sighed. “Fine.”

 

“Hand out.”

 

She held out her hand, palm up, half convinced he was about to drop something slimy or squishy or crawling into it.

 

When she felt a press of cool metal, she opened her eyes and looked down.

 

She held an obnoxiously large, flowered, _pink_ hair clip. One she’d last seen clipped to the chandelier in the Entrance Hall.

 

“You’re _joking_ ,” She breathed, looking up at him. “How did you –?”

 

James just grinned at her, eyes sparklingly despite the deep exhaustion lines underneath them, and let out a low chuckle that seemed to come from his chest and dig into hers.

 

“A memento,” he said, quietly, taking the hair clip out of her still-open hand. “To the time that James Potter thoroughly impressed Lily Evans.”

 

Lily barely breathed as he reached with his free hand to pull her hair out of her face, and clipped it back behind her ear with a tenderness and dexterity she should have known to expect from him.

 

She looked up at him as he did it, her heart hammering in her chest so loudly she was sure the piano was about to register the vibrations in an embarrassing slamming of keys. He was so close to her, closer than he’d ever been probably, and every inch of Lily’s skin was electric, every hair stood on end.

 

The realization slotted into place naturally in that moment, as if it were the last piece of a puzzle that she’d been looking for even though it’d been _right there_ all along, and when she finally managed to put it in its spot, it fit perfectly. Of course _, of course,_ it fit perfectly, because she was Lily Evans and he was James Potter and, shit, she fancied him, didn’t she?

 

She was falling into it, into the realization, into all of the moments that led both of them to right here, right now, _this_ moment where James clips Lily’s hair back with an awful hair clip from her sister that had been intimately acquainted with a poltergeist’s nostril not six months ago but Lily doesn’t even _care_. She’s spiraling but she says, “Tell anyone and I’ll have to kill you.”

 

Her voice is even, her tone is light, she is definitely still spinning, but he sighs and says, “No one would believe me if I tried, Evans.”

 

And suddenly it’s the end of term after their sixth year and it’s mid-July and Ophelia is tapping at the kitchen window and it’s August and James needs her to tell him that he is _good_ and _right_ and _Head Boy_ and it’s right now in the Room of Hidden Things and it’s a thousand little moments all at once and Lily can’t do anything but stand there and breathe and smile at the exhausted mess of a boy in front of her and try not to get dizzy from all of the circles.

 

 


End file.
